An attempt in progress to compile the most universal movies of all time, the creamiest of the crop, the most rewarding and eternal.
Sharing your assent or dissent, as well as any pertinent info, will be greatly appreciated and cited. The goal is not to make you admire this list. It's to get more people making this kind of list for themselves.

Bursting with creativity in the writing, editing, and acting departments, this movie continually surprises with all of its twists and turns. A bookish rich boy falls for a ravishing lowdown, street-smart girl. All their ups and downs, challenges and delights, are compacted ingenuously and humorously into an hour and a half. Barbara Stanwyck seems to light a keg of a dynamite in the history of women's roles by playing such a complex, take-charge character. She makes absolute mush out of the Henry Fonda character, which is also played to perfection. The sexual innuendos feel vibrant, and still naughty, even by today's standards. Part of the charm is in the fact that Stanwyck plays virtually two roles in one, and the story is split into three chapters, each building on the other to reach the fantastic and metaphorical climax.

While the 1931 version of this story focused on the psychological and emotional, this version can be described as the more psycho-spiritual version. Starting with a sublime zoom in on a church tower, we hear a Victorian sermon, we are treated to an upper-class dinner party, and then we descend into an acid trip of sex, dreams, and nightmares. It all can get a little wordy at times, but whenever it does, the intensity is right around the corner which is enough to keep us watching and reflecting on the dangerous matters at hand. The cinematography is off the hook, capturing garden kisses through potted plants, sleepy masses in their pews, ominously foggy London, troubled Spencer Tracy trying to keep his cool, Lana Turner looking her most glorious, and Ingrid Bergman at her most complex. She is phenomenal as a woman before and after an abusive relationship!
Thankfully, the makeup department kept away from transforming Tracy by falling into traditional racist stereotypes. There are no more bushy eyebrows and coarsening of his hair, but the downside is that at times, Tracy doesn't look all that different from his usual self. Luckily, his acting is so good that it's still scary. In fact, he's downright creepy, surprisingly so! On the whole, it's a gut-wrenching piece, especially when the tone shifts into a depiction of male-on-female abuse. That's the real charm of this movie, that its story can hold so many thematic angles, that it has so many fine performances, so many fine shots, so many fine scenes, and they all hold together brilliantly, seamlessly, breath-takingly well.